Animal tracking, my favorite winter sport

On a sunny morning, I head across the recently renewed snow cover to see what the creatures have been up to in the little nature preserve behind my house. I follow deer tracks to a spot where they’ve pawed up the snow down to the leaves and even some dirt, looking perhaps for acorns. The …

The Saving Grace of Computer Modeling

Scientists throw out predictions on how long it’s going to take for the average temperatures on Earth to rise 5 degrees and what the effects will be on sea level, agriculture, and human existence—but many people are skeptical because it’s all based on computer modeling. As a former computer programmer, I know how impossible it …

A Short Poem

On New Bridge Road Something I've never seen before: a tow truck towing a tow truck.

Found: Coles Brook

Coles Brook is a small creek that empties into the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing, once the site of a tide-powered mill and a wharf that serviced boats transporting goods up and down the river. One day I was watching Canada geese noodle around the mouth of the brook, and I wondered where the …

Bucks in the back yard

My house in uber-suburban Bergen County is surrounded on three sides by a small nature preserve, so I get to see wildlife meandering through my back yard. At the same time, there's a four-lane street with cars zooming by at 40 mph about 10 feet from my front door, so I never forget that I'm …

Whooping cranes still migrating

I am still fascinated by the whooping cranes and their slow migration behind the ultralight aircraft. They are flying today, expected to reach Georgia. It’s been a rough migration, with a lot of down days due to bad weather and winds, but their Florida destination is not far off now. See http://www.operationmigration.org/crane-cam.html or http://www.wildearth.tv/web/omi-trk-01 to …

Waterfowl: chinstraps, dabbling, and more

One of my favorite activities in fall and winter, when much of nature has gone into hiding, is watching waterfowl, which don’t seem to have a big problem with cold water. Feeding wild ducks and geese is frowned upon, but along the shores of public lakes, where visitors entertain their children with scatterings of stale …

Is biomass a renewable resource?

Technically, yes, since it is composed of woody debris, algae, agricultural waste, fish guts, or other living or formerly living matter, which can be regrown and replenished. But renewability is also related to speed of consumption—when a power plant uses 70 tons of biomass per hour, the forests cannot be expected to keep up, as …

More suburban wildlife adventures—deer and wild turkey

At 7:30 yesterday morning, I saw a buck, probably the same one that crossed the highway in pursuit of a doe in a recent blog post. Today he was shuffling through the woods behind the house, water vapor steaming from his nostrils as he walked with his head down. At first I thought his substantial …

Pineapple, Squirrel, New Jersey Transit

I keep thinking of a pineapple. But I know the white stenciled emblem on the side of the black Jeep is not really a pineapple. On my third glance I realize--it's a hand grenade. On the railroad tracks, I notice an odd curl of dust-colored debris, which it turns out to be a dead squirrel. …